'Messed Up World': Yukon students write songs about the COVID-19 pandemic

Whitehorse musician Matthew Lien said he wasn't sure how to get things started at the summer music camp he's leading. The idea was to get a group of teenagers to write and produce a song from scratch.

"They're kind of sitting there and everybody's a little shy, and they're not really coming out with something. I don't even know that they thought in advance about really what they wanted to do," Lien recalled.

"I said, 'what's been on your mind lately? What do you want to write about?'"

Turns out, it's what has been on everybody's minds lately COVID-19.

Two groups of students each came up with a song that reflects their perspective on the pandemic.

Messed Up Worldincludes lyrics such as, "All this shit really scares me,and honestly I'm just confused."

"Everyone in the group, or the three students, we all wrote our own lyrics and wrote our own sort of piano section to go with them," said FinnianHanley, whose dad is Yukon's Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Brandan Hanleywho's leading the territory's pandemic response.

Hanley is particularly looking forward to the end of the pandemic, to see more of his dad.

"He comes home so late," he said.

"I sort ofkept getting stuck with my lyrics," said Clementine Burgess, who also helped write Messed Up World.

The other group of students came up with SPY,another contemplative song with lyrics such as,"What was it like to be outside? To walk aroundand meet new people? To laugh and smile and feel alive? Now something keeps everyone away."

Jasmine Sudlow, who helped make SPY,said the pandemic was something everyone could relate to.

"We were all pretty confused at the beginning of [music camp]. And then the whole topic of COVID[-19]just kind of came into our minds and we were like, 'let's write about that,'" she said.

Riley Heal, who also helped make SPY,said it was great to see how a song can be built from the ground up.

"We all got likenotepads, and just started scratching down everything that came into our brains. For some it wasn't much," he laughed.

Musician Lien said he's impressed with what the students came up with.

"To see this COVID[-19]crisis through the eyes of these young artists, and you know, they're just in the beginning of their life and the whole world is upside down and their future is entirely uncertain," Lien said.

"It was just really touching to hear how they see this situation."